It looks like my new Inside Bar Momentum forex mech strategy is off to a slow start this year for USD/JPY, but I’m keeping my robot fingers crossed that these adjustments can do the trick. But first, an update on the latest positions…
Nada! After chalking up a few losses the other week, this pure price action-based mech strategy failed to churn out valid signals on USD/JPY for the past few days.

I’m planning on running this first basic version of the system for a couple more months since, as some of my dear readers noted, the sample size is too small to make any conclusions just yet. Still, I’m also looking into the suggestions and tests that my fellow system junkies have made. Check ’em out:
- Baseline tests from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2015 for USD/JPY, AUD/JPY, NZD/JPY, GBP/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, and EUR/USD by forum member testpossessed
- Backtest results from 2005 to 2015 on EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CAD, GBP/JPY, EUR/GBP, and EUR/JPY by Álvaro Uphedge.com
- Optimization results on GBP/JPY with wider stop losses and various trailing stops by Álvaro Uphedge.com
- Use longer-term time frame like daily charts
- Specify a ratio between the size of the candle body and its entire length to avoid dojis/spinning tops as signal candles
- Move stop to break even after price moves in the trade’s direction based on a % of the signal candle
Phew, quite a lot, eh? I’m really enjoying getting all this feedback on the trading system since I could sure use your help in making improvements. I’ll probably try to run a few tests based on a few of these tweaks or a combination of ’em so make sure you stay tuned to my blog updates, and don’t be shy to share your recent findings on the strategy as well.
*beep beep boop beep*